A contractile sleeve element and compression stocking consisting of a plurality of such elements for the peristaltic treatment of a patient's extremities.
The invention relates to a contractile sleeve element for use in the peristaltic treatment of patients' extremities and of the type comprising at least one sleeve means to be wrapped around a patient's leg/arm.
Regarding operations under a complete anaestetic, thrombosis in the lower extremities is a frequent complication, particularly in elderly patients, resulting in a possible development of fatal pulmonary complications.
Various circumstances influence the formation of thrombi in extremities, viz. biochemical and hemodynamic conditions (decreased flow and turbulence of the blood flow) under complete anaestetic, thereby impeding the function of the muscle pump under normal conditions.
Besides the treatment with medication, various forms of compression stockings for a long time have been used for the peristaltic compression of extremities.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,862,629 discloses a compression stocking comprising a stocking placeable around the patient's leg with a number of encircling pressure hoses or pressure chambers successively supplied with pressurized air by a suitable control sequence arrangement, thereby locally and successively subjecting the patient's limb to compression.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,804 discloses a compression stocking consisting of a supporting sheet of flexible material to be placed around the patient's limb, said sheet being combined with a second sheet in such a manner as to form a number of chambers supplied with pressurized air by a suitable sequential control, thereby allowing said chambers to locally and successively compress the patient's limb.
Various alternative patents deal with compression stockings which may likewise be divided into successively actuable pressure chambers (U.S. Pat. No. 3,826,249, U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,135, DE-OS 34 04 638) or which are designed without a division of the pressure chambers but accommodated within a pressure box (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,824,992 and 4,343,302).
From U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,135 a compression stocking is known in which a number of stocking tubular members supported by a common sheathing are arranged around the patient's limb.
A common characteristic of all said prior art designs is that they all make use of air pressure (positive pressure) to actuate the individual pressure chamber elements so that there is either atmospheric pressure in said elements if no compression is wanted, or if compression is wanted there is a positive pressure.